Daniel Bryan and WWE NXT stars work SmackDown dark matches

There were two interesting dark matches that took place after Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown Live went off the air in Jacksonville, FL at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

First up were NXT Superstars Tucker Knight and Otis Dozovic of Heavy Machinery as they beat The Colons. As noted, Heavy Machinery is headed to WWE’s main roster soon alongside Lars Sullivan, EC3, Lacey Evans, and Nikki Cross. As of this writing, WWE continues to air vignettes for these stars to hype their debuts but has yet to officially confirm when they’ll start on the main roster or which brands – either Raw or SmackDown Live – that they’ll be featured on.

The second dark match saw WWE Champion Daniel Bryan retain his title over AJ Styles by disqualification once Bryan hit Styles with a low kick. Post-match, Styles fired back with a low blow of his own as well as connecting with his finishers, a Phenomenal Forearm, and a Styles Clash.

Bryan is slated to defend the WWE Title against Styles at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event on Sunday, January 27, 2019, in Phoenix, Arizona at Chase Field. This will serve as the third match between these two stars to be broadcasted as Bryan beat Styles on SmackDown Live back in November and they most recently competed against each other at the TLC PPV.